10 March Tussles Worth Watching

Despite a lack of star power, February was a solid month for mixed
martial arts. The Nate
Marquardt-Wilson
Gouveia and Nick
Thompson-Paul Daley
fights -- Sherdog.com’s top-ranked bouts for the month -- delivered
the goods as far as all-out action between evenly matched opponents
was concerned.

The signs for March are similar. Most of the sport’s top
pound-for-pound talent will not return until summer, so guys like
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Aleksander
Emelianenko will get their chance to shine. With tough
opponents like Keith
Jardine and Ibragim
Magomedov in their way, fans are guaranteed competitive
matchups.

March got off to a strong start. German judo ace Gregor Herb
celebrated his coming out party in MMA with a second-round
submission of Swiss master grappler Marcelo
Lopez, and World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight champion
Mike
Thomas Brown coaxed a tapout from Leonard
Garcia and retained his belt at WEC 39.

Here are 10 more March tussles from around the globe that fans
should not miss. As always, this list does not focus only on the
major bouts you already know to watch but rather on fights from all
over the planet that are worth seeing.

Although easily five years removed from his prime, Newton remains a
big draw in his home country. The 32-year-old submission specialist
was once considered one of the premier ground fighters in the game
and briefly held the UFC welterweight championship in 2001. Newton
(13-13) will try to snap a three-fight losing streak when he takes
on countryman Khatib (8-4) in the main event of Warrior-1’s debut
show in Quebec.

Following the demise of its original aces, Hidehiko
Yoshida, Takanori
Gomi and Kazuo
Misaki, fledgling Japanese promotion Sengoku has just one
fighter -- Lawal -- left who possesses the star power, charisma and
athletic ability to captivate the fight fans in the Land of the
Rising Sun. Lawal (3-0) will take on reigning King of Pancrase
Kawamura in only his fourth appearance inside the squared circle.
Kawamura (9-3-2) has beaten some tough opponents but was also
knocked out by Fabio Silva
-- a man Lawal later victimized.

Two UFC veterans will lock horns in Finland’s capital city. Since
being released by Zuffa, Valimaki (13-5) has won four straight. The
Edmonton, Alberta, native holds some big wins over Jason Day,
Vernon
White and Rodney
Glunder. Radev (17-3), a stocky Bulgarian wrestler, will try to
decode the “Matrix” with excellent top control and a dangerous
submission game.

Midwestern fight fans should consider the trip to the tiny college
city in North Dakota if they want to see some decent heavyweight
action in their area. Three-time UFC veteran Hinkle will return
from a 20-month hiatus to take on the once defeated Tuchscherer
(15-1) -- one of Brock
Lesnar’s sparring partners at the Minnesota Martial Arts
Academy. Tuchscherer raised more than a few eyebrows with his
strong performance in the ill-conceived Yamma Pit Fighting
tournament. A convincing victory over the experienced Hinkle (14-9)
could put him one step closer to the big leagues.

Blessed with a physique like former International Fight League
heavyweight champion Roy Nelson,
Greek banger Economou (8-0) has emerged as Ultimate Warrior
Challenge’s shingle fighter following the departure of former star
Ivan
Serati to the UFC. Despite being just 22 years of age, “Crazy
Bear” has been in the game for a while and has polished off all but
one of his opponents by knockout or technical knockout. Thompson
(0-0), Britain’s Strongest Man in 2006, will stand across the cage
from him at UWC 9. The 29-year-old powerhouse from East Sussex,
England, has been training in MMA for some time and wants to test
himself against Economou.

On credentials alone, it does not get much better than this, as
Sherdog.com’s ninth-ranked featherweight Imanari takes on
fourth-ranked bantamweight Yamamoto. Imanari (15-6-1), who
currently holds the 137-pound belt in Deep, has become notorious
for his heel hooks and leg locks. A win over Yamamoto* (12-5-1)
could set up a bout with Norifumi
"Kid" Yamamoto in the second round of the Dream featherweight
tournament in May.

This bout serves a true delicacy for fans of the European circuit.
French Muay Thai stylist Rimbon (13-8-3) has been around since the
turn of the millennium and has tested himself against fighters like
Roman
Zentsov and Alistair
Overeem. Most recently, he went the distance with Antonio
Rogerio Nogueira in Japan. Judging by his build and raw KO
power, Komkin (11-3) -- a teammate of Sergey
Golyaev -- could be the second coming of the legendary Igor
Vovchanchyn. The ground game, which Komkin needs to improve
upon, separates him from the former Pride star at this point in his
career.

There are times in a fighter’s career when he has to prove his
greatness. Up until a year and a half ago, Shooto bantamweight
champion Kojima (9-3-5) was considered to be among the top 10
pound-for-pound fighters in the world. Two embarrassing losses
followed in his quest to conquer the promotion’s featherweight
division, and his stock plummeted. Against dangerous submission
stylist Shoujou (8-4-2), more than his 123-pound title will be on
the line. Many critics see this as a fight in which Kojima must
defend his legacy.

With his unresolved medical situation blocking possibly lucrative
fights in Japan and the United States, Fedor
Emelianenko’s younger but bigger brother has to look to local
organizations to keep his career alive. Southwestern Russian
promotion ProFC has gladly obliged and booked the heavily-tattooed
Emelianenko (14-3) into a compelling bout with former training
partner Magomedov (20-5-1). The 33-year-old Magomedov will come in
off a first-round stoppage of Finland’s Jarno
Nurminen and is enjoying an undefeated run of nine fights over
the past two years.

Set apart from the meaning and the consequences of this fight --
i.e. the fact that it can be a title eliminator for Jackson (29-7)
-- fight fans in Ohio are in for a scrap that promises to be
brutal. Both fighters have won big fights in the past two years.
“Rampage” has knocked out Chuck
Liddell and Wanderlei
Silva, while Jardine (14-4-1) stopped Forrest
Griffin and outworked the “Iceman.” Can Jackson relegate the
“Dean of Mean” to gatekeeper status, or will Jardine spoil the run
of another top contender?

* Editor's note:
This article was updated at 10:34 p.m. EST to correct an error
stating Atsushi Yamamoto was Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto's brother. In
fact, there is no relation.